Kudzu Playhouse in Hernando takes on Grimm's frolic, fears

"Into the Woods" features 11-year-old in key role

June 3, 2013 - Clare Kelly (left), a junior at SBEC, works through a scene with play director/actor Alayna Weiss, of Southaven. Kelly plays the part of "Rapunzel" while Weiss will be filling in as the witch for Kudzu Playhouse’s production of "Into the Woods" at the Hernando Performing Arts Center, 805 Dilworth Lane, on the weekends from Friday through June 16. Showtimes are Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for seniors and students and are available online at www.kudzuplayers.com or at the box office on show days. For more Kudzu information, go online to www.kudzuplayers.com/ or Facebook or e-mail kudzuplayhousems@gmail.com. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

June 3, 2013 - Lexie Lang (left) and Lori Jarman ham it up back stage while waiting for their cue. The Hernando High students are part of Kudzu Playhouse’s production of "Into the Woods" opening this week at the school’s performing arts center. For more Kudzu information, go online to www.kudzuplayers.com/ or Facebook or e-mail kudzuplayhousems@gmail.com. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

June 3, 2013 - Rehearsal for Kudzu Playhouse's production of "Into the Woods" at Hernando High School Performing Arts building. (Stan Carroll/The Commercial Appeal)

One of the biggest stars of Kudzu Playhouse's new production of Stephen Sondheim's "Into the Woods" is also one of its smallest.

Olive Branch 11-year-old Ty Kirk plays "the Narrator" in the Tony Award winning musical, which is based on fairy tales famously collected by the German Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm, in the early 19th century.

The show starts Friday and runs this weekend and next at the Hernando Performing Arts Center.

Kirk's role — one of the biggest and most important in a show that, even in Kudzu's slightly abbreviated version, runs more than two hours — has traditionally been played by an adult. But in recent productions in London and New York, directors have taken the unusual step of casting a child in the part, the better to underline the show's themes.

"I thought that was a really cool choice because it really drives home those themes of parents and parent-child relationships," says director Alayna Weiss, who also plays the Witch in the show. "There're a lot of themes about the consequences of deceit and selfishness and the difference between good and bad and that children might not always listen but they're always watching and those really speak to me as an a adult and as a parent especially."

If the producers of "Into the Woods" had any qualms about casting such a young performer, Kirk, who is already something of an old pro on the local theater scene, erased them. He made his acting debut at age 5 and has earned two Allie Award nominations from the Northwest Mississippi Theater Alliance. His achievements are even all the more impressive because Kirk suffers from a hearing condition that affects his ability to hear higher pitches but doesn't affect his remarkable singing voice.

"He's just fabulous. He runs circles around some of the pros here," says Weiss. "Ty holds his own, and I'm amazed with his stamina as well. To keep that kind of focus and intensity through a long show like that, and he's on the stage for 9/10ths of the show. But he does it with grace."

Written by Sondheim with a book by James Lapine, "Into the Woods" debuted in 1986 and premiered on Broadway a year later, going on to win three Tony Awards (original score, book, and performance by a lead actress in a musical) despite stiff competition from Andrew Lloyd Weber's "Phantom of the Opera."

The show is an at-times-dark pastiche of several Grimm fairy tales, including Little Red Riding Hood (Carter Rice), Jack and the Beanstalk (Zach Buchanan), Rapunzel (Clare Kelly), and Cinderella (CJ Hudson), with some new characters (Justin Bixler and Samantha Wilcox as the Baker and his wife). . In keeping with recent psychological reinterpretations of these old tales, the musical delves into the deeper subconscious meaning and lessons in the tales.

"These are what fairy tales were before Disney got a hold of them," says Weiss. "But it really comes full circle, and the big theme of it is community. Community is what preserves us. There's a song called ‘No One Is Alone': "Honor the mistakes that everybody makes/And remember that no one is alone.' And they bid together as a team and defeat the giants and everybody wins. It's definitely a triumph of the human spirit."

If you go

What: "Into the Woods" presented by Kudzu Playhouse

When: weekends of June 7-16

Where: Hernando Performing Arts Center, 805 Dilworth Lane, Hernando

Show times: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets: $12 for adults and $7 for seniors and students. Tickets available at the box office day of show and online at kudzuplayers.com.